Christmas in July and beyond...

In July I sometimes find myself humming a song from an elementary school play, "Christmas in July, there's no reason why, we can't have a Christmas tree so high, oh yeah!" This year July and beyond became an extended Christmas for our family. Vacations. Presents. Family. Friends. Oh my.

We started July in Ohio for the annual "Fourth on the Farm." Asadourians descended upon the farm from Chicago, Mahwah and Nashville. Friends arrived from all over. We ate, drank, were merry and blew things up all weekend long. Last year we were celebrating the fact that Ani was able to leave the confines of Chicago... this year we were praying that we had the strength to keep up with her!

Next we found ourselves jetting off to the East Coast. We spent a lovely night in NYC with even lovelier friends, Avishan and Omid. We ate pancakes at Sarabeth's, explored Central Park and had a lovely albeit short respite before heading to the Jersey Shore...

where we played with cousins and Babkas, ate and ate and ate, scouted out Princeton as a future safety school and of course, dipped our toes in the ocean.

Then Ani and I headed back to Ohio for a vacation from our vacation. Mommy got to relax her favorite way- antiquing and Ani got to "drive a tractor" and hold a piglet.

We finished our whirlwind Christmas tour with a visit from the Babkas Terrell to celebrate their anniversary and Tractor Babka's __ birthday! By this time, July had morphed into August...

And finally every Christmas needs a miracle. Our little "miracles" met for the first time over pancakes and bacon at Fox & Obel.

Happy Christmas in July and beyond!